'CMD Search a directory to Find a string inside a file
I need to find the files in a directory that have specific strings, using Windows CMD prompt.
E.g., I need to find the files that have a string like this:
<h1>Select an Item</h1>
Solution 1:[1]
"findstr" iswhat you are looking for.
findstr /I "<h1>Select\ an\ Item</h1>" *.*
findstr is the command, /I is a flag to match the string case insensitive. "<h1>Select\ an\ Item</h1>" is your string (note the escaped spaces!) and *.* means "in all files in this directory".
The basic syntax is findstr "seachString" filename.ext.
You may replace filename.ext with *.ext or *.* to filter cretin file types or look in all files.
This will look only in the current directory and not recursively.
More information about the command findstr documentation
Solution 2:[2]
The command you require is fundamentally findstr.
type
findstr /?
at the prompt for directions.
The command that may work for you is
findstr /m /g:"a file containing your string or strings" *
or
findstr /m /L /c:"<h1>Select an Item</h1>" *
Where some experimentation with the contents of the "quoted string" may be required, especially wrt characters line <>() and others with a particular meaning to cmd.exe.
Solution 3:[3]
Find some string inside all text files in current directory:
cls & for %i in (*.txt) do find /i "search text" < "%i" && (echo : %i & echo -)
Tested in Win 10
Sources
This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Source: Stack Overflow
| Solution | Source |
|---|---|
| Solution 1 | 0xGiddi |
| Solution 2 | Magoo |
| Solution 3 |